Source: New Zealand Institute of Safety Management
Message: Improved guidance to help companies better understand the risks in workplaces and how best to mitigate them is a welcome step, says the professional body for health and safety experts, the New Zealand Institute of Safety Management.
“The announcement by the Minister today is exactly what needs to happen to remove uncertainty and make the job of helping companies understand and reduce risks much easier,” said Mike Cosman, NZISM’s Chair.
“Guidance on how to do health and safety well is a cornerstone of our health and safety system but has been missing since the Health and Safety at Work Act came into force nine years ago. It’s also something that we advocated strongly for in the consultation over these reforms, so we’re pleased to see this included.
“Unfortunately, it’s an area where both MBIE’s and WorkSafe’s records have not been good. The failure to complete the core Regulations needed to support the Act has created the gap the Minister refers to. More than half of WorkSafe’s guidance is out-of-date and much of the current guidance is not well tailored to its audience.”
WorkSafe needs the expertise and resources to deliver the quality guidance and Approved Codes of Practice (ACOP) that are needed and to keep it current, given the pace of technological change occurring. NZISM welcomes the ability to enable industry, such as forestry to develop their own ACOPs in conjunction with their workers, given that it’s now 12 years since the need for clearer guidance in that high-risk sector was first recognised by the Independent Forestry Safety Review.
“In the short term we encourage the Minister to finish the job on the plant and structures (machines, vehicles and buildings) regulations which are largely complete and to begin work on other regulations such as hazardous substances which are dangerously out of date. The intent of following the Australian model law was so that we could ‘steal with pride’ and quickly adapt their Regulation and guidance, rather than trying to reinvent a kiwi-shaped wheel.
“Health and safety experts are a vital part of mature health and safety systems, not the pointless burden suggested in the Minister’s statement.”
There’s some technical detail here around the difference between regulations and guidance. Regulations are agreed by Order in Council (essentially by the Governor General on advice from the Prime Minister) and (in the health and safety space) set mandatory requirements for dealing with certain types of work or risk. They are the next step down from the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.
Health and safety duties are focused on what an organisation “knows or ought to know” about dealing with certain risks so the role of guidance is very important. Industry guidance can be useful and information from WorkSafe or the other health and safety regulators is particularly important. The most formal and significant type of guidance is an Approved Code of Practice (ACOP); this guidance is signed off by the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety and is the most persuasive. Minister van Velden proposes to lift the status of ACOPs by making compliance with an ACOP a legal defence (a safe harbour). This makes the rules in the ACOP much more significant.
Background NZ Institute of Safety Management
NZISM is New Zealand’s leading professional association for health and safety practitioners. We are a 2,800-strong community, operating nationwide through a network of 14 branches, whose members represent the entire spectrum of New Zealand business and 3,000 health and safety professionals. Our purpose is to influence better health and safety outcomes at work. We achieve this by representing the interests of our members at industry and Government levels, and by supporting the growth and development of members.
